07/10/2010 - Pub chain fined over landlord death
A pub chain has been fined £300,000 after a landlord died from carbon monoxide poisoning while managing a pub in Liverpool.
Enterprise Inns, which owns 7,700 pubs across Britain, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Liverpool Crown Court after Paul Lee died while working at the Aintree Hotel in Bootle, Liverpool.
Mr Lee was found unconscious by a cleaner after he had turned on a gas fire in his living room in November 2007. The 41-year-old suffered a heart attack due to lack of oxygen on the way to the hospital and died the following morning.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered that the fire may not have been serviced since 1979 and the chimney was completely blocked.
Iain Evans, the investigating inspector at HSE, said: "What makes this case so tragic is that Mr Lee's life could have been saved if Enterprise Inns had continued to obey the written warning it received about gas safety six years earlier, instead of falling back into old habits."
The case serves as a timely reminder to landlords and owners of to-let properties debating whether to get landlord insurance.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
Related links
|
